Regional briefs

Wamego: Wells contaminated with toxic solvent

Twenty-one private wells near a former missile site have been found to contain high levels of a toxic solvent used by the military to clean engines, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment says.

Tests at the plant near Wamego showed the water contained levels of trichloroethylene, or TCE, that exceeded Environmental Protection Agency standards.

TCE, a possible carcinogen, has been linked to liver damage and can cause vomiting and abdominal pain, according to the EPA's Web site.

Joplin, Mo.: Kansas group seeks more public land

When it comes to public land, Kansas wildlife officials would like their state to be more like Missouri.

Earlier this summer, the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks established a working group to look at ways to resolve the dearth of public land in the Sunflower State.

"Missouri, even though it is much smaller, has five times as much public land. Oklahoma has 2.5 times as much," Mike Hayden, a former Kansas governor who now heads Department of Wildlife and Parks, told The Joplin Globe.

With 800,000 acres, Hayden said, Kansas ranks 49th in the amount of land per person, just behind Rhode Island.

Marysville: Past executive director of KPA dies at age 83

Former newspaper editor and cartoonist Don Fitzgerald, who also had served as the executive director of the Kansas Press Assn., has died. He was 83.

The Marysville Advocate, which published his cartoons from the mid-1970s until recently, reported that he died Oct. 13 at his home in Wood Dale, Ill.

After graduating in 1942 from Kansas University, Fitzgerald taught junior high art in Lawrence. He bought The (Waterville) Telegraph in 1973 and became executive director of the Kansas Press Assn. three years later.

A memorial service will be next spring at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Blue Rapids, Ill.